Florida's Fabulous Insects

Whether you are a gardener, birder, butterfly-lover or landscaper, you should enjoy this book. After my garden finally succumbed to the heat/humidity of summer, I thought I would try to educate myself with all the bugs, or should I say insects, that I have seen lately. I learned that many insects aren't true bugs; hey, read the book for more information. This is a great reference book and the pictures are clear and concise. There is lots of interesting tidbits and enough information to educate even the most informed person. Recently I was working under an old live oak tree cleaning up brush and weeds and I was bitten on my foot. Stupid me, it was hot and I was wearing open croc-type sandals with no socks. I noticed what I thought was a huge orange ant and I killed it. Then I went to soak my foot until it stopped hurting. Little did I know that what I thought was an ant (Velvet Ant) is actually a wingless wasp and it is beneficial. They are parasitic insects and not aggressive unless, you guessed it, someone tries to pick it up or step on it. OK, I learned my lesson. The only reason I didn't give the book 5 stars was because I would have liked to learn more. I'm greedy: hover flies, more beneficial wasps, and a list of plants to attract beneficial insects. In this day and age we need to avoid pesticides when possible. It is 168 pages it is easy reading for a rainy, hot or winter day and even non-Floridians will enjoy it.

This is part of an entire series of books about Florida's flora and fauna. The photographs are excellent. While they are paperbacks, they are oversized and approach coffee table quality. As someone that has lived in Florida for more than 47 years, I can attest that these books do a more than adequate job of capturing the essence of Florida. This book is not all-inclusive since Florida has thousands of insects. It has a limited scope, but still does a great job of highlighting the most interesting and most photogenic insects in Florida. It is not meant to be field guide or biology text. It is more of an overview, but it does it with style. I purchase every book in the series on which I can lay hands. Highly recommended for Floridians and those that are interested in Florida. This book would also interest non-Floridians if they like to know about bugs.

This book has great photography and discription of various insects, however. this is a large book so you can't take it outdoors to try to identify a certain insect. It is a very good reference book

Wonderful photos and quite interesting text...and here I thought this was going to be a hokey little book.